The Manufacturing Media Consortium’s new Gen Z and Entertainment departments are studying how young D2C (direct to consumer) entrepreneurs embrace streaming to develop an audience, a client base, and, most significantly, profits. Different social media platforms such as; TikTok, Instagram, and streaming platforms like Twitch have replaced traditional marketing approaches. Gen Zers are embracing social media and streaming entertainment, taking a page from Wendy Williams’ slogan, “How you doin?”
The popularity of streaming’s success has become the main method of promoting a manufactured product to a responsive and committed audience. Those that successfully earn money through streaming in two ways are “given” a digital currency produced by viewers. Some streamers make $10,000 or more each month by quietly promoting connections to entrepreneurial product lines and websites. These viewers are strongly and continuously engaged, watching 24 hours a day, seven days a week to feel connected to their favorite streamers, this has been especially true during COVID, when isolation is at an all-time high. Streaming allows everyone participating to experience a part of true connection, even if it is only virtually.
These young business owners are in their field and surely know what to do. Even if it’s a quasi-show (if they design the clothes or jewelry), every effective streamer is focused on entertaining the viewers. The D2C concept also allows inventory SKUs and production levels to be adjusted in real-time to meet viewer demand. It’s QVC redesigned for Generation Z. It’s entertainment without the high-pressure sales push. (Advertisers are joining on board, generating fifteen-second commercials that viewers must sit through in order to continue viewing the stream.) Advertisement firms, similar to television commercials, aim to promote their customers’ products by inserting commercial breaks during a popular streamer’s broadcast. Companies are aware of the large number of individuals who watch live streams and want to profit from it.
“These individuals are more than brand influencers or ambassadors,” said TR Cutler, founder of Manufacturing Media Consortium. They are developing product lines in the same way that any other manufacturing company would, but they have chosen a communication style that is natural, apparent, and real for themselves and their peers. Whether the streamer accepts presents or sells their self-made goods, they are appealing to their clients through this outlet, which is extremely smart.
The Manufacturing Media Consortium, a collection of editors, journalists, freelancers, and economists targeting the industrial sector, is celebrating its 23rd year, thanks to Thomas R. Cutler.
Cutler has written over 8,000 articles for business journals, industrial publications, and a number of leading manufacturing magazines, AI Global Media just named him the Most Influential Supply Chain Journalist. Cutler is the most widely published freelance industrial writer in the world, with almost 5000 industry executives following him on Twitter at @ThomasRCutler every day.